Alda Abbate

Name: Alda Abbate

Gender: Female

Age: 18

Grade: 12

School: Aurora High School

Hobbies and Interests: Softball, Slam Poetry, Rap Music

Appearance: At 5’4 and 145 pounds, Alda is a stocky girl. She carries her weight in her stomach, thighs, and arms, giving her a rounded appearance that matches her chubby cheeks. She has caramel colored skin, with a smattering of dark freckles across her nose and arms. Her black hair runs to her mid shoulder blades, and has faded, poorly self-dyed red streaks in it. She almost always wears it in a long, slick backed ponytail, with one long bang hanging on the left side of her face. Her eyes are a dark brown, and her nose is somewhat flat. She has a small gap in between her two front teeth, and thin, dark lips.

Alda wears some makeup, preferring mascara and eyeliner. Her clothing style is relatively casual, and she can almost always be seen in jeans and plain, dark colored tops. She wears a small diamond stud in her left ear, and has a white gold cartilage piercing in the same ear as well. Other than that, she only wears jewelry on nice occasions. On the day of the abduction, Alda was wearing a short sleeved green top, black jeans, and tennis shoes.

Biography: Alda is the oldest of the fraternal twins born to Marcello Silva and Jennifer Abbate, born 32 minutes before her brother, Paulo- a fact that she holds over him constantly.

Marcello, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor living in Southern California, met Jennifer, a businesswoman, and began a relationship with her. After four years of the dating, Jennifer became pregnant, and the unmarried couple ran into troubles. Eventually, Jennifer grew irritated of Marcello’s obsession with Jiu Jitsu, and packed up for Seattle, leaving Marcello in the wake. Jennifer's sudden uprooting left Marcello entirely out of his children's life -- he paid no child support, sent no Christmas gifts, and never made an effort to contact them. Jennifer, determined to be independent of Marcello, never asked him for support. Instead, she turned to Seattle-based day care and after-school programs and a plethora of babysitters to keep watch over the kids while she worked.

Alda and Paulo spent most of their childhood knowing nothing of their father. Alda was indifferent to the man, not caring to know who he was or where he came from. As far as she was concerned, he didn’t help raise them, so he didn’t deserve to be a part of their lives. It was difficult for Alda to grow up in the poor circumstances she lived in- Jennifer being a single mom with two children meant the family was poor, and Alda was a somewhat materialistic child, always wanting the new toy or game. Not being able to get these things when she wanted them has installed a sense of gratitude in Alda, and has made her more respectful and less greedy over time.

In middle school, Jennifer pressured Alda to get into a physical activity in order to stay fit. Paulo latched onto UFC fighting, and Alda went elsewhere, looking for the sport where she could do the least and get away with it. She eventually found a softball team that was part of the local park district, and joined with the hopes of standing around in the outfield and doing nothing. These hopes were dashed by the coach of the team, who firmly expected Alda to put forth an effort.

It was around this time that Jennifer revealed information about Marcello to the twins. Alda was, again, indifferent to the man, thinking he wasn’t worth her time. Paulo, however, latched on to their absent father, trying to imitate him in every way. This behavior made Alda irrationally angry with her brother, and she began to channel her aggression into softball. Soon, she had excelled in the sport, and was a force to reckon with in the outfield, able to sprint long distances in short times and go after the ball with fury and passion. Once she got into high school, Alda joined the Junior Varsity softball team, eventually rising to Varsity level in her Junior year.

However, Alda found that softball could not alleviate her anger at Paulo for long. Her attitude got worse progressively, and tensions at home began to rise. One of Alda’s friends suggested music as a release, and Alda began to look into it. Ultimately, she began to develop a love of rap music, which captured the anger she was feeling while being clever, lyrical, and brilliantly offensive at the same time. Her love of rap developed steadily over time, and she became attached to the genre.

In school, Alda had never particularly excelled in any subject, preferring to slip under the radar and do as little as she could get away with. One English teacher, desperate to get Alda to care, brought up the connection between poetry and rap music. Specifically, the teacher recommended that Alda look into slam poetry.. Reluctantly, the girl gave it a try, and almost immediately fell in love. Again, slam poetry connected to the anger inside of Alda, and she saw it as a healthy way to release her emotions.

Unfortunately for Alda, her passions for both rap and slam poetry did nothing to improve her talent. Despite spending hours on raps and poems, her rhymes are weak, blunt, and often lack finesse. She has a habit of just stating the obvious without making much of a point, though she has not let this get it the way of her determination to get better.

Further, despite softball, rap, and slam poetry being good releases for Alda’s anger, they ultimately had some negative effects on her personality. Rap and poetry encouraged an almost belligerent sense of bluntness in Alda, encouraging her to speak her mind at all times, regardless of the appropriateness of the situation. While some people found this endearing, many quickly grew annoyed of her behavior. Alda has a close group of tight-knit friends (mostly girls from the Softball Team), but overall people tend to find her brash, abrasive, or downright annoying.

This bluntness also has affected her relationship with Paulo. Alda, completely aware of his over-blown sense of strength, often told him to his face that he was a loser. She was constantly irritated by his idol-worship of their father, as well as his group of strange and obnoxious friends who had a habit of invading her backyard. The two of them fight near-constantly, unable to find common ground in almost any situation. Often, Alda will belligerently disagree with Paulo on a subject even if she agrees or is indifferent too it, just to annoy him. As a result, home life with the Abbate's tends to be difficult and filled with fighting. Alda has taken to spending as much time outside of her house as possible to avoid the terror of being at home.

Despite her rocky relationship with Paulo and her non-existent one with Marcello, Alda and her mother have always gotten along quite well. Jennifer is Alda’s confidant, who she turns to when she needs help or is particularly irritated at her brother. Though they do fight, mostly due to Alda’s stubbornness and bluntness, they are close and often friendly, and Alda secretly considers her mother to be one of her best friends. Recently, Jennifer has gotten increasingly irritated with Paulo and Alda's bickering. She spends much of her time telling Alda to patch things up with her brother, telling them to get along because they're family. Alda understands her mother's point: her bitterness at her father has left her with an important sense of family, and she knows that at the end of the day she and Paulo will always need to be there for each other -- no matter how much they'd rather be elsewhere. However, she finds herself unable to tolerate his presence or get along with him the majority of the time. She expects Paulo to make the first move in patching up their relationship, and refuses to do so herself.

Alda’s school friends tend to be other softballers, though she can sometimes be seen hanging out with other students with interest in English. For the most part, Alda does mediocre in school, earning straight C’s in every subject except for English, which she carries a low B in. Jennifer has tried to convince Alda to get her grades up, but Alda's stubbornness is hard to work against. Lately, Jennifer has accepted that Alda will always be a midrange student, and has simply started encouraging her daughter to at least try to continue her education. Persuaded by her mother, Alda has applied to several community colleges. Though she has no idea of her major, she hopes to find college classes more enjoyable than high school classes and find a true passion as quickly as possible.

Advantages: Alda’s physically fit thanks to softball, and is especially good at sprinting when she needs to be. Her aggressive nature could come in handy in a game where everything is fight-or-flight, and she might be able to intimidate some of her opponents with her blunt words and stubborn nature.

Disadvantages: Alda is a difficult person to get along with, and would not easily make allies in a game. She is not a very determined person, only focusing on what interests her, which could cost her in a game like SotF. Further, her callous nature could rub people the wrong way, and make her some powerful enemies.

Designated Number: Female student No. 056

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Designated Weapon: Cat O' Nine Tails

Conclusion: Not the best draw, but it's workable - especially if she can find her better-equipped friends and form a softballer death squad or something. Man, there are so many great movie ideas here! - Andrew Denning

'The above biography is as written by CaseyNuge. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: CaseyNuge, DocBalance

Kills: Meera Stele

Killed By: Ian Williams

Collected Weapons: Cat O' Nine Tails (designated weapon), kukri knife (from Meera Stele)

Allies: Iselle Ovalle-Vandermeer, Kathryn Nguyen

Enemies: Jaquilyn Locke, Rosemary Michaels, Meera Stele, Ian Williams

Mid-game Evaluation:

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes:

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Alda, in chronological order.

The Past:

Pre-Game:
 * From Sao Paolo to Seattle
 * You hit like a girl
 * After Practice

V5: Related Threads in Meanwhile:
 * Sup Nerds?
 * The Usual Suspects
 * Do You Know Who I Am?
 * Kill All Motherfuckers
 * Glass
 * A Two-Way Street

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Alda Abbate. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''

I don't have a lot to say about Alda, because I feel so satisfied with her. When she went up for adoption, I was a bit intimidated to bid for her. The Softball Girls were one of my favorite groups, and I definitely didn't want to do them dis-service in taking her over. After I took her in though, Iselle and Kathryn proved to be a relaxing, exciting, blast of a pair to write with.

Beyond the initial hump, I can't say I ever struggled with Alda, or felt regret about where she took me. There were some hiccups in planning a few of her scenes, certainly, but as a character I always felt I had a clear vision of who she was and what she wanted. She's my proudest SotF work, and I believe I'll always remember her fondly. She has flaws in her story, I'm sure, and more than a few narrative bumps, but the sheer joy and energy that came from working with her more than made up for that. It was a tough decision on a personal level to hero her out, but I'd learned a lesson or two from handling Garrett. She was ready to die, even if I wasn't ready to let go of her. I tried to send her off as loudly and passionately as she deserved. I like to think I succeeded. --DocBalance

Alda is a character that got great improvements after adoption, as under the original handler she was rather unlikable and bitchy, particularly towards her brother Paulo. While she is in the right somewhat considering his behaviour at times, her barbs and insults against him come across as attempting to be funny, but rather feel rather distastefull and ugly.This attitude continues until she's adopted by Doc Balance, who does her best at making Alda a bitchy person, but at the same time humanising her in a way the original handler didn't. It helps that she was part of the softball girls group, who were all good characters on their own, but worked particularly well together. She trusts them and through threads with them we get to see a side of her that hadn't showed till now. And it makes her eventual attempt at taking revenge for Paulo's death at Ian's hands make sense and shows that underneath the dislike between them, they were still siblings and didn't hate each other. Picking Alda to read might be a bit awkward at first, but when the adoption happens you'll see why I reccomend her. - Matador